• News

EA says BioWare will reveal its new IP 'in the not too distant future'

His remark was part of a larger conversation on the topic of developing new properties.

David Craddock

August 31, 2016 1:56 PM

9

EA executive vice president Patrick Soderlund told reporters from GamesIndustry.biz that BioWare will reveal its new IP sooner rather than later.

"We'll get to talk about that in the not too distant future. We have other teams working on new IP as well. I think it's about a balance, right? Making sure that we continue to push what great looks like for Battlefield or FIFA or Madden - or Star Wars, for that matter - while continuing to invest in something new."

Soderlund's comment was part of a larger conversation on the lessons executives in the industry have learned over years of balancing iterating on popular franchises and creating new ones. For instance, EA recently started gathering and evaluating data to better understand what projects stand a higher chance of panning out, and which ones seemed poised to flop.

If that sounds dangerously close to design by committee, don't worry: Soderlund agreed. "That's not who we are--but we do want to make sure that we have touch points with players out there, so we can understand if we're thinking about this in the right way."

EA has a lot of irons in the fire. Former Assassin's Creed producer Jade Raymond is hard at work on a new IP, while ex-Naughty Dog Writer Amy Hennig is spearheading development on a Star Wars-themed game. Yearly releases of popular annualized franchises like Madden NFL buttress design efforts on new IPs.

On the subject of remasters, EA executives are torn. Peter Moore told IGN flat out that there were no plans to remaster BioWare's Mass Effect trilogy, but Soderlund seemed more willing in a separate interview from earlier this month.

"Can we make an easy buck on remastering Mass Effect? Yes," Moore said. "Have a thousand people asked me that? Yes, they have," he added. "We just feel like we want to go forward. There's a little thing called Mass Effect: Andromeda that we're totally focused on at BioWare and it's gonna be magnificent."

"We have to be careful in choosing the right brands for the right reasons at the right time," Soderlund said. "A remaster is something that you can just do or do it really well. I want to make sure that if we were to do it, we would do it really well and that people feel that it's the same game but it feels so much better in this new shape and form. There have been titles that have come out that have done it really well, and there have been others that maybe haven't done it so well. We just want to make sure that we stay in the 'done it really well' camp."

David Craddock

Long Reads Editor

David L. Craddock writes fiction, nonfiction, and grocery lists. He is the author of the Stay Awhile and Listen series, and the Gairden Chronicles series of fantasy novels for young adults. Outside of writing, he enjoys playing Mario, Zelda, and Dark Souls games, and will be happy to discuss at length the myriad reasons why Dark Souls 2 is the best in the series. Follow him online at davidlcraddock.com and @davidlcraddock.